The invention relates to a storage device for laboratory samples comprising at least one storage rack and a shaker drive. The invention also relates to climate controlled cabinets having such a storage device.
In automated essays, e.g. in microbiology, samples are stored in so-called micro titer plates having a large number of small wells. Because of the large number of probes to be investigated, a large number of plates are used in a test run. Typically, the plates are stored in tower-shaped storage racks. Each storage rack is adapted to receive a plurality of micro titer plates (or similar laboratory samples) on top of each other. For certain applications, it is necessary to shake the samples during certain time periods.
EP 1 443 101 describes a storage device in a climate controlled cabinet that comprises a shaker drive, which shakes a storage rack carrier. A number of storage racks, e.g. two, are mounted to the rack carrier. Since the storage racks are comparatively high, undesired oscillatory movements of the upper ends of the storage racks can occur during shaking. This limits the shaking frequency and amplitude, makes it necessary to use a very sturdy setup, and leads to undesired noise and vibrations as well as to a shaking amplitude that is different for different storage locations.